Snow
District Info

4 August 2020

This report was produced by the Environmental Enforcement Watch, a project of EDGI. Data utlizied to produce this report comes from the EPA’s Enforcement and Compliance History Online (ECHO)


DISTRICT INFORMATION

Massachussetts’ 4th Congressional District

Joe Kennedy

Democrat

Years in Office:

Relevant Committee Membership: Energy and Commerce Committee

Relevent Subcommittees: tbd

The House Energy and Commerce Committee is the oldest house committee, and has one of the broadest mandates. Among other things, it has jurisdiction over environmental protection, clean air and climate change, safe drinking water, and toxic chemicals and hazardous waste. Additionally, it has oversight of the Environmental Protection Agency.

What can Joe Kennedy do?

As a member of this committee and subcommittee, Joe can . . .

Cosponsored Bills in Interest Areas

Pull info from govtrack


Highlights for Your District

2271 regulated facilities in MA 4

1743 RCRA facilities

446 CWA facilities

464 CAA facilities

^turn this into a bar chart comparison with national and statewide numbers

Put in all of this info once we have it and figure out how to visually represent -

  • Total (all program) violations vs. total facilities
  • Number of recurring violations (3+ quarters in violation) in the last 12 quarters
  • % change in CWA effluent violations
  • % change in inspections
  • % change in enforcement $ and #

Program Specific Information

Resource Conservation and Recovery Act

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) gives EPA the authority to control hazardous waste from the “cradle-to-grave”, regulating the generation, transportation, treatment, storage, and disposal of hazardous waste. Although facilities self-report under RCRA, like the CAA, violations are most often found after an inspection, and a reduction in violations might mean a reduction in inspections. EPA


Program Specific Information

Clean Air Act

The Clean Air Act (CAA) is the comprehensive federal law that regulates air emissions from stationary and mobile sources. Among other things, this law authorizes EPA to establish National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) to protect public health and to regulate emissions of hazardous air pollutants [EPA] (https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/summary-clean-air-act). For the CAA, inspections are the most common way of identifying violations, so less violations aren’t necessarily an improvement. Recent cuts in inspections is likely related to a drop in violations.

More to come!